X-men
X-men Gallery Official Name: The X-men Team Aliases: Children of the Atom Status: Active Identity: Unknown: Identified as a "school for gifted youngsters" Alignment: Good Universe: Earth-82004 Base Of Operations: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York Other Locations: Rarotonga, Australia, Bludhaven Organization Team Leader(s): Professor X Current Members: Beast (Hank McCoy), Colossus (Piotr Rasputtin), Iceman (Robert Drake), Professor X (Charles Xavier), Three in One, Havok (Alex Summers), Husk (Paige Guthrie), Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Windrider (Karan Creed), X-23 (Laura Logan), Forge, Rogue, Hellion(Julian Keller) Former Members: Nocturne (Talia Wagner), Dazzler (Alison Blaire), Gambit (Remy LeBeau), Jubilee (Jubilation Lee), Cyclops (Scott Summers), Lucas Bishop, Magneto, Phoenix (Rachel Summers), Phoenix (Jean Grey-Summers), Polaris (Lorna Dane), Psylocke (Elizabeth Braddock), Revanche, Rogue, Sage (Tessa), X-Man (Nate Grey), Allies: Alpha Flight, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Shinobi X, Spider-Man, Starjammers, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Statix, X-Terminators, Justice League, Teen Titans Enemies: Arcade, Apocalypse, Black Tom Cassidy, Brood, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Cassandra Nova, Count Nefaria, Dark Phoenix, Elias Bogan, Friends of Humanity, Hellfire Club, Magneto (Magnus), Marauders, Mister Sinister, Mojo, Nimrod (Sentinel), Onslaught, Reavers, Sentinels, Shadow King, Purifiers Place of Formation: Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York Creators: Stan Lee History The X-Men were a group of mutants founded by Professor Charles Xavier. Mutants, or Homo Superiors, were born with superhuman abilities due to a sudden leap in evolution which generally manifested themselves at puberty. Mutants were often hated and feared because they were unlike humans. As a response Xavier created his School For Gifted Youngsters to provide a safe environment where mutants could learn to control their powers. The X-men fought for a future where humans and mutants could live together in peace. Early History Xavier's first class of students consisted of the bouncing Beast, the high flying Angel, telepath and telekinetic Marvel Girl (Jean Grey), the young Iceman, and team leader Cyclops. After training extensively in the school's Danger Room, the students were sent on field missions to protect the world from dangerous mutants who would use their powers with against humanity. The first such mission brought them to Cape Citadel, Florida in direct confrontation with the master of magnetism, Magneto, who would go on to become their most frequent enemy along with his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants disbanded after Magneto's capture by the cosmic entity called the Stranger., The X-Men went on to face new menaces, such as the unstoppable Juggernaut and the robotic Sentinels before Magneto returned again. Their next major opponent was the mysterious organization known as Factor Three. Following the defeat of Factor Three, the X-Men faced their greatest tragedy when Professor X apparently died at the hands of Grotesk. Shortly thereafter, Magneto and his Brotherhood captured the X-Men, and only with the help of the Avengers were they able to defeat him. After returning home, the FBI's Agent Fred Duncan ordered the team to break up, to better combat crime, which they did for the next few adventures. They were brought back together again by a robot duplicate of Magneto and Mesmero's capture of Lorna Dane, and remained together after defeating them. Shortly thereafter they attended Scott's brother Alex's graduation, only to get involved in a strange caper involving the Living Pharaoh. Alex was apparently lost in the Sahara following this, but the X-Men had little time to search before they were attacked by a new incarnation of the Sentinels. Defeating the Sentinels, resulting in the death of Larry Trask, the X-Men searched for a way to help Havok control his awakening mutant powers, only to discover Sauron. This battle led them back to the Savage Land, where they again battled Magneto and his Savage Land Mutates. When the first group of students were captured by the living island of Krakoa, Xavier recruited an all new, all different group.18 The German demon-looking teleporter Nightcrawler, Russian strongman Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), Irish sonic screaming Banshee, African "Goddess" of weather Storm, Japanese hothead Sunfire, Canadian berserker Wolverine and Native American Thunderbird rescued the original team. The new multi-cultural squad set the tone for future generations of X-Men. Soon after, all of the original X-Men left except for Cyclops. Sunfire abruptly quit. Thunderbird was killed during the new teams second mission against Count Nefaria. Corsair of the Starjammers returned to Earth seeking the X-Men's aid in stopping a rebellion against Majestrix Lilandra.40 The Starjammers were framed for kidnapping Lilandra while it was really Deathbird, the Majestrix's sister, in league with the alien Brood. The X-Men discovered the truth, stopped the rebellion against the Shi'ar empire, and reunited Xavier with Lilandra. Cyclops discovered that Corsair was actually his father, abducted by the Shi'ar decades earlier. Shortly thereafter a television interview with Senator Robert Kelly worried the X-Men, who had FBI connections in their early years, and thus had government files on many of them. Carol Danvers, Wolverine, and Storm infiltrated the Pentagon and uploaded an open-ended virus that erased all references to the X-Men or members of the team. While in the Pentagon, they also encountered Mystique and Rogue of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Brood resurfaced abducting the X-Men, Lilandra, and Carol Danvers. Traveling across the galaxy to their home planet, a Brood Queen implanted embryos within them. Interested by Danvers unique genetic code, she was experimented upon and became Binary. Although the X-Men escaped from "Sleazeworld" all seemed lost, as once the embryos matured their hosts would undergo a metamorphosis and become a warrior Brood. Storm was saved by a young Acanti, a large space-faring creature that resembled a whale and communicated telepathically. The Acanti had been enslaved by the Brood and used as starships. With nothing left to lose the X-Men vowed to save the Acanti race. After freeing the Acanti "prophet-singer" soul from the Brood homeworld, the X-Men were healed. Before killing the Brood Queen, Kitty Pryde found the friendly dragon Lockheed who followed her back to Earth. The X-Family Grows During the prolonged period when they were abducted by the Brood, Xavier believed that the X-Men had been killed. Moira MacTaggert convinced him to form a new team of adolescent mutants that needed his help in controlling their powers. Unwilling to see more of his students perish, Xavier was only willing to train them in the use of their special abilities and not send them out into combat as he had with the X-Men. These New Mutants ended up in many battles regardless, and occasionally aided the X-Men. Upon returning from space, Cyclops left the X-Men for a prolonged period of time. He had met Madelyne Pryor during a trip to meet his grandparents in Anchorage and fallen in love. The two married, and had a child; Nathan. Angel briefly rejoined the team, only to be captured by the Morlocks, and taken down into their tunnels to be Callisto's groom. Storm challenged Callisto to combat, without powers and to the death, which she won, securing her leadership of the Morlocks and Angel's freedom. Two more members soon joined the team. Rogue's Brotherhood of Mutants teammates couldn't help as the Carol Danvers persona she had previously absorbed began to overwhelm her own personality. Xavier agreed to aid the desperate mutant and added her to the roster. Carol Danvers was furious that her friends would allow the girl that destroyed her life to join the team, and left Earth with the Starjammers. Most of Rogue's teammates still held animosity towards her for what she had done as a member of the Brotherhood, but she slowly gained their trust by continually showing her bravery; she nearly died protecting Wolverine and infiltrated the SHIELD helicarrier to rescue Michael Rossi. Later, Jean Grey's daughter from an alternate timeline, Rachel Summers, traveled back in time and joined the team. Growing from his crisis of conscience, Magneto became an X-Men ally. Captured by Freedom Force while attending a Holocaust memorial gathering, he was put on trial in Paris. Mostly exonerated of charges on account of his second infancy, the trial was unfortunately interrupted by the Fenris twins, who sent Magneto and Professor X for a ride in the Parisian sewers. Half-drowned and near-death from other medical conditions, Xavier convinced his old friend to take his place as headmaster of the institute. Lilandra took him from Earth to recuperate from his injuries. Using the alias of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's alleged cousin, Magneto was Headmaster for a long tenure. He would also be invited to join the inner circle of the Hellfire Club, an offer which he and Storm decided was worth accepting. At the behest of his friend Cameron Hodge, Angel proposed that X-Factor be a mutant-hunting contractor as a cover for their activities. The Marauders (secretly commanded by Mister Sinister) would make a substantial impact on the X-Men with their callous murder of most of the Morlocks living in the Alley. In their first battle with the X-Men, the Marauders took a gruesome toll, paralyzing Colossus, putting Nightcrawler in a coma, and trapping Shadowcat with her own power such that she was slowly discorporating. Magneto succeeded in healing Colossus, who rejoined the team, but Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were beyond the X-Men's help.56 Cyclops' brother and reservist Havok, Mojoverse freedom-fighter Longshot, the singer Dazzler, and telepath Psylocke took the injured mutants place. After recovering, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler went on to form Excalibur. Psylocke was found naked and amnesiac by agents of The Hand. Her mind and soul were transfered into the Asian body of Kwannon, and she was brainwashed into becoming the Lady Mandarin. On a mission she faced Wolverine, and upon attacking him with her psychic knife the backlash of memories of the X-Men began to break her free from the Hand's control. Blue and Gold With the team now larger than ever before, organization suddenly became essential. To remain effective as a group, the X-Men were divided into two squads: * Blue Squad: Cyclops, Wolverine, Jubilee, Beast, Psylocke, Rogue, and Gambit * Gold Squad: Storm, Phoenix, Archangel, Windrider, Iceman, Colossus, and later the newcomer Bishop * Forge, Moira, and Banshee returned to the X-Mansion and act as the team's support staff. The Blue Squad battled Magneto and his Acolytes in Genosha. Discovering Moira MacTaggart altered his DNA years ago when he regressed to a toddler, Magneto questioned if his recent turn to heroics was a result of Moira's tampering or his own free will. Magneto forced Moira to brainwash the Blue Squad into joining his Acolytes on Asteroid M, a space station haven for mutants. To make matters worse, the American and Russian governments decided to use a plasma cannon on the space station to end the threat of Magneto once and for all. Worried about their friends, the Gold Squad sneaked on board and rescued their teammates, while a traitorous Fabian Cortez abandoned Asteroid M and planned to make Magneto a martyr so mutants around the world would join him. Xavier tried to talk the Acolytes into escaping the doomed base with the X-Men, but Magneto and his followers instead stayed to die. The Gold Squad began their tenure attending a party at the Hellfire Club thrown by Emma Frost. The White Queen explained she and other members of the Club were targets of assassination, and sought the help of her former enemies. Before long, Trevor Fitzroy arrived and began to attack Frost and her Hellions. In Australia, Donald Pierce was attacked by Fitzroy's Sentinels. Gateway teleported Pierce to New York, along with three of the attacking Sentinels. The Sentinels seemingly killed Frost, Pierce, and Jean Grey. Fitzroy drained the life of every Hellion he could subdue, killing all of Frost's students. Returning her body to the X-Mansion, Xavier realized Jean's consciousness had been relocated to Emma Frost's body. Jean woke up while in the custody of Fitzroy and Shinobi Shaw, who were revealed to be members of the Upstarts. The Upstarts competed in a contest of murder run by the Gamesmaster. Their first targets were former and current Hellfire Club members, and Fitzroy believed he had won and was entitled to run the Upstarts. Jean surprised the two by using telekinesis, a power Emma Frost lacked, and escaped with the X-Men. Fitzroy used the Hellions life essence to open a portal to the future and brought some allies. Bishop, a mutant born in the 21st century, arrived instead. Fitzroy escaped, and Bishop joined the present day X-Men. Xavier realized the White Queen's psyche also remained alive, and returned it to her own comatose body. Battles with Omega Red (a member of the Soviet Super Soldier program) and Hazard followed. Around this time, the Blue and Gold squads dissipated into one large X group. Legion woke up from his coma with his fragmented mind completely healed. Wanting to make up for the pain he had caused his father, David Haller planned to travel back in time to kill Magneto; eliminating the greatest threat to human/mutant coexistence and fulfilling his father's dream. Bishop, Storm, Iceman, and Psylocke traveled back in time to stop him, but were defeated. As Legion fired a powerful psi-blast at Erik Lehnsherr, Charles Xavier sacrificed himself to save his friend. With his own father dead, Legion fadeed away along with the rest of the X-Men. Only Bishop, a temporal anomaly, remained unaffected. In the present day, a crystalline wave emerged from the M'Kraan Crystal and eliminated all of reality. Legion's altering of the timeline is devastating. Noticing the mutant energies during the battle against Haller, Apocalypse began his world domination a decade earlier than he would've otherwise. Rather than be defeated by X-Factor, Apocalypse and his Horseman conquered all of North America in a world known as the Age of Apocalypse. He erected a citadel on Manhattan Island with breeding pens and ghastly experiments run by Sinister and Dark Beast, a twisted version of Hank McCoy. Humans fled to Europe, and were frequently massacred by Sentinels. In this reality, the X-Men are created by Magneto and acted as freedom fighters. Although they suffered many casualties, the X-Men were able to send Bishop back in time to stop Legion and restore reality to normal. Somehow four AoA individuals remained in the normal 616 reality (X-Man, Sugar Man, Dark Beast, Holocaust) while two (Blink and Sabretooth) joined the dimensional hopping Panoptichron. Onslaught Earth_X-23 is a parallel world in which Kal El violently seized control of Earth after years of training in his fortress of solitude and created a violent Empire with himself as sole ruler. With the evil OnslaughtX as his second-in-command, Kal El fought a long, bloody war against the forces of the rebellion, lead by the Amazonian princess Diana. Kal El's forces were legion, he employed many twisted versions of our own world's heroes and villains, and employed the stolen infant X-23 as his personal assassin. Eventually, Princess Diana grew weary of the bloodshed, and offered Kal El what she believed he truly wanted: her hand in marriage, in return for a truce between the Royal Alliance and the Rebellion. Peace was extremely short lived however, as the villainous Onslaught found a way of breaching the barrier between realities. He briefly attempted to seize control of Earth-82004, but was beaten back by a combined force of many heroes. When he fled back into his home reality, many residents of our Earth (including the X-men) were drawn along with Onslaught, and together they struggled to make sense of the dystopian world that confronted them. The heroes eventually defeated Onslaught, splitting him into Magneto and Professor X. They found a way to return home, but not without their own tragedies: Windrider had been devolved into a creature much like her father, Sabretooth. And they brought home with them X-23. Cosmic Entities Dark Phoenix Phoenix Captain Universe Trial of the Supers The Corporation Where Have All the Superheroes Gone? Karan, New President and pardon Assault on the Justice League Cassandra Nova took control of Professor X's mind and sent him into a type of coma. She reformed her own mind so that it was impossible to tell the difference between herself and Charles. She then dumped his body into Cerebro to waste away while she sent his precious X-men on suicide missions. She sent a psionic representation of Professor X into the minds of the X-men to make them think he went on the missions with them. One such mission was to kill the Justice League. During that mission "Charles" was killed. Although the X-men prevailed, they were extremely distraught at what they had done and their faith in their former leader was shaken. Cassandra revealed herself as the new headmistress, the school having been left to her in a false will. She also introduced the X-men to the Kingmaker, who offered them their hearts' desires. She hoped this would appease them for a time. And it did. In fact, Cyclops wished for the X-men to have never killed the Justice League (why he didn't wish for the mission to have never been done was not revealed). Cassandra remained as headmistress for a time, where she cultivated a relationship with the Three-in-One and Windrider. However, the Three-in-One eventually discovered Charles's body in Cerebro and turned on Cassandra. In an epic astral battle, Charles was freed and returned to his barely-alive body and Cassandra's psychic form was locked in the Z'noxx Chamber, a place that is psi-proof. Teams Merge After Charles regained control of the X-men, many still chose to leave. He had lost the trust of many by hiding the existence of his murderous sister from them. Even Nocturne, the professor's ever loyal secretary, left the mansion. And so the blue and gold teams merged into one which consisted of the following members: *Leaders: Professor X *Field Leader: Storm (Ororo Munroe) *Team: Beast (Hank McCoy), Three-in-One, Storm (Ororo Munroe), Windrider (Karan Creed), X-23 (Laura Logan), Hellion(Julian Keller), Gambit (Remy LeBeau) A New Era Gotham The Time Gem Jade World of the X-Men The X-Men fight everything ranging from mutant criminals to galactic threats. The X-Men base themselves in the Xavier Institute, Westchester County, New York], and are often depicted as a family. The X-Mansion is often depicted with three floors and two underground levels. To the outside world, it had acted as a higher learning institute. Xavier funds a corporation aimed at reaching mutants worldwide. The X-Men benefit greatly from state-of-the-art technology. For example, Xavier is depicted tracking down mutants with a device called Cerebro; the X-Men train within the Danger Room, first depicted as a room full of weapons and booby traps, now as generating holographic simulations; and the X-Men travel in their widely recognized and iconic Blackbird jet. Fictional places The X-Men introduced several fictional locations, which are regarded as important within the shared universe in which Marvel Comics characters exist: *Asteroid M, an asteroid made by Magneto, a mutant utopia and training facility off of the Earth's surface. *Genosha, an island near Madagascar and a long-time crime of apartheid regime against mutants. Given control by the U.N. to Magneto. *Madripoor, an island in South East Asia, near Singapore. Its location is shown to be in the southern portion of the Strait of Malacca, south west of Singapore. *Muir Island, a remote island off the coast of Scotland. Primarily known in the X-Men universe as the home of Moira MacTaggert's laboratory. *Savage Land, a hidden location in Antarctica which is home to a number of extinct species, most notably dinosaurs. *Mutant Town, an area in Alphabet City, Manhattan, populated largely by mutants and beset by poverty and crime. *Bludhaven, a desolate town adjacent to Gotham City where the New Students are based. *Rarotonga, Xavier's private tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. Paraphernalia Equipment: Danger Room, Cerebro, Cerebra, Image Inducer Cyber-glasses. Although most X-Men choose to individualize their costumes, standard blue and gold uniforms are available. All X-men carry a X-communicator. Transportation: X-Men Blackbird; the original is still in use and Forge has constructed additional models for each team. An earlier version was the X-Men Stratojet and before that the X-Copter. Weapons: No standard weaponry. Some members have at times carried weapons as suited their tastes and current team philosophy (Longshot throwing knives, Cable futuristic firearms, Forge self-made firearms, Wolverine and Psylocke Katana, Storm Knife). Wolverine additionally has a weapon he is incapable of removing under normal circumstances (Adamantium claws). Links and References *X-Men at the Marvel Universe *X-Men at the Marvel Directory